Huskers Head to Hoosier Fall Invite

The Nebraska women’s golf team returns to competition for the first time in more than three weeks when the Huskers travel to the Hoosier Fall Invitational, Oct. 19-20. NU will be part of a 15-team field at the Hickory Stick Golf Club in Greenwood, Ind.

The Huskers will be challenged by the 6,062-yard, par-71 layout at Hickory Stick. They will also square off against 14 teams, including Big Ten Conference foes Indiana, Illinois, Minnesota, Penn State and Purdue, along with future conference partner Rutgers. Ball State, Boston College, UC Davis, Eastern Michigan, Illinois State, Louisville, Toledo and Xavier round out the field.

Senior Steffi Neisen leads the Huskers to Indiana with a trio of top-12 finishes and a team-leading 75.33 stroke average through nine rounds.

Fellow senior Katelyn Wright has added three top-25 finishes to open the year, while ranking second among the Huskers with a 76.33 stroke average.

Sophomore Cassie Deeg, who won NU’s season-opening Chip-N Club Invitational, and freshman Jordan Chael have each contributed 77.56 stroke averages on the season.

Live scoring for the Hoosier Fall Invitational will be available at www.GolfStat.com.

Steffi Neisen and Katelyn Wright notched top-12 individual finishes to lead the Nebraska women’s golf team to a tie for sixth at the Marilynn Smith/Sunflower Invitational, Sept. 23-24.

Neisen, a senior from New Prague, Minn., posted a three-round score of 234 (74-81-79) to finish 11th on the 6,265-yard, par-72 layout at Colbert Hills. She edged Wright, who tied for 12th at 235, by one stroke in the individual standings.

Wright, a senior from Incline Village, Nev., fired Nebraska’s top final round with a two-over-par 74. The Huskers managed a final-round 318 to close the tournament tied for sixth at 960 (313-329-318) with Colorado State.

Meghan Potee took the individual title with a 54-hole total of 224 (75-75-74), while her Kansas teammate Thanruttra Boonraksasat finished as the runner-up at 227 (78-74-75). Potee and Boonraksasat led KU to the team title with a three-round score of 910 (303-299-308). The hosts from Kansas State finished second at 926 (313-302-311). Tulsa took third (941), while Arkansas State (944) and Oral Roberts (951) finished just ahead of the Huskers.

Quality scores were tough to come by for the tournament, as 13 of the 15 team rounds came in at 313 or above (25-over-par). For the tournament, only seven of the 45 team rounds were 312 or better.

Sophomores Hannah Luebke (75-85-95-255) and Cassidy Stelzmiller (89-85-81-255) tied for 59th while playing as individuals outside the Nebraska lineup in the 81-player field.

Deeg, Huskers Capture Chip-N Club Crowns Nebraska produced the best three-round score in tournament history with an 874 (284-296-294) on its way to the Chip-N Club Invitational title, Sept. 9-10.

The Huskers smashed their previous Chip-N Club record score of 884, when they claimed their last Chip-N Club title in 2008. NU’s 874 marked the second-best three-round score in school history, trailing only an 866 at the 2007 Mountain View Collegiate. The Huskers won their 29th team tournament title in history, including their sixth Chip-N Club Invitational crown since 2003.

NU won the team title by 18 strokes, as Central Arkansas finished second (892) and Wichita State took third (901). Iowa (910) and Missouri State (922) rounded out the top five in the final team standings.

Cassie Deeg won her first career individual title with one of the best individual efforts in Chip-N Club history. She closed with a two-under-par 70 to finish at 213 over 54 holes. Deeg’s effort smashed her previous career-best of 221.

While Deeg took medalist honors, the top four players in the NU lineup were not far behind. Steffi Neisen, who shared the tournament lead with Deeg after 36 holes, matched the best finish of her career by taking second at 217. The senior from New Prague, Minn., notched the second top-five finish and fifth top-10 showing of her career, while posting her second-best three-round score as a collegiate player.

Fellow senior Katelyn Wright added the third top-five finish of her career by tying for fifth at 220. Wright, a native of Incline Village, Nev., carded her second-best 54-hole score as a collegian. Jordan Chael capped an impressive collegiate debut by grabbing a top-10 finish of her own. The true freshman from Overland Park, Kan., tied for ninth with a three-round score of 224.

Deeg Named Big Ten Golfer-of-the-Week Nebraska’s Cassie Deeg captured the first Big Ten Golfer-of-the-Week honor of her career, when the conference announced its first award winner of the season on Sept. 11. Deeg, a sophomore from Hugo, Minn., stormed to her first career collegiate title by winning the 2013 Chip-N Club Invitational at Wilderness Ridge Golf Course in Lincoln with a career-best tournament total of 213 (72-71-70). Deeg, whose previous career-best tournament score was 221, posted the second top-10 finish of her career.

Seniors Neisen, Wright Lead More Experienced Huskers Senior leadership, more experience and greater depth in competition both in practice and tournaments are expected to help the Nebraska women’s golf team climb the ladder in the Big Ten Conference in 2013-14.

Last season, Nebraska’s nine-player roster lacked both seniors and sophomores. This season, two extremely experienced seniors and four sophomores with solid experience of their own will make up the nucleus of the Husker lineup.

Nebraska’s more experienced 2013-14 team starts with seniors Steffi Neisen and Katelyn Wright. Neisen, who has played 105 rounds in the Husker lineup, is a three-time WGCA Scholastic All-American.

After producing two of the top five freshman and sophomore stroke averages in school history, Neisen struggled at times as a junior. However, her career 77.39 stroke average ranks among the top 10 players in Husker history. She opened her senior season with a second-place finish at the Chip-N Club Invitational, before adding a tie for eighth at the Minnesota Invitational and an 11th-place finish at the Marilynn Smith/Sunflower Invite. She leads the Huskers with a 75.33 stroke average through nine fall rounds.

Wright led the Huskers with a 77.39 stroke average as a junior. The Incline Village, Nev., native has played 98 career rounds, including a 76.33 average and a trio of top-25 finishes early in 2013-14.

Sophomores Form Nucleus for Future of HuskersWithout the benefit of having any juniors on this year’s roster, the leadership load for the Huskers will again fall on seniors Katelyn Wright and Steffi Neisen. However, a sophomore class that includes third-year returners Morgan Smejkal and Cassidy Stelzmiller will be much more prepared for the grind of the collegiate season than last year’s team.

Add to the mix true sophomores Cassie Deeg and Hannah Luebke - Nebraska’s top two finishers at the 2013 Big Ten Tournament.

Smejkal could be another one of NU’s most improved golfers this year. The Columbus, Neb., native carried her improvement through the summer of 2013, when she captured the Nebraska State Women’s Match Play championship. Smejkal finished with an 81.56 stroke average through 25 rounds as a redshirt freshman.

Deeg was Nebraska’s steadiest player in 2012-13. Her 77.71 stroke average ranked among the top rookie seasons in school history. She also led NU with her tie for 32nd at the Big Ten Tournament. She added the best effort of her career with a 213 and her first career title at the 2013 Chip-N Club Invitational. She is tied for third on the squad with a 77.56 stroke average through three fall tournaments.

Luebke emerged late as a freshman after battling a back injury in the fall. The German earned a lineup spot in NU’s final two tournaments of 2012-13, finishing in a tie for 38th at the Big Ten Tournament.

True Freshman Chael Makes Instant Impact Nebraska’s lone true freshman Jordan Chael has made an immediate impact on the Husker lineup. The native of Overland Park, Kan., solidified the Husker lineup with three solid rounds to finish at 224 in ninth place in the 75-player field at the Chip-N Club Invitational. She added her second straight top-20 finish to open her career by tying for 18th (231) at the Minnesota Invitational, Sept. 16-17. She heads to Indiana tied for third on the Huskers a 77.56 stroke average through nine rounds.

Chael was the Kansas Class 5A state champion in the fall of 2012, while leading St. Thomas Aquinas to its third consecutive team title. She was ranked as the No. 58 player nationally in the Class of 2013 by Golfweek.

Chael captured the Kansas Class 5A state individual title while helping St. Thomas Aquinas to its third consecutive state team crown. She also won the Missouri Women’s Golf Association State Junior Championship in 2012, before adding a runner-up finish in 2013. She added individual medalist honors at the Four-State Team Championship in 2013.

Huskers Face Challenging 2013-14 Schedule The Huskers opened the season with a victory at the Chip-N Club Invitational in Lincoln, Sept. 9-10. The tournament returned to Wilderness Ridge, and NU stormed to its first tournament title since 2008 with a record-setting score of 874.

The Huskers hit the road for the first time at the Minnesota Invite, where they managed a seventh-place finish in a 12-team field, Sept. 16-17. NU tied for sixth at the Marilynn Smith/Sunflower Invite, Sept. 23-24, before taking nearly a month off to prepare for the Hoosier Fall Invitational, Oct. 19-20. Nebraska will wrap up the fall portion of its campaign the following week by traveling to the Las Vegas Collegiate Showdown, Oct. 27-29.

The spring schedule tees off with the Westbrook Invitational in Peoria, Ariz., Feb. 23-24. It will be the first of three straight trips to Arizona to open the spring, including the Clover Cup in Mesa, March 14-16. Two weeks later, the Huskers make a return trip to Tucson, Ariz., for the Mountain View Collegiate, March 28-29.

Spring season action heats up with a trip to Texas for the SMU/Dallas Athletic Club Invite, April 4-6. The Huskers will get an early look at some of the Big Ten Tournament field when they travel to the Ohio State Spring Invitational, April 19-20.

The 2013-14 regular season concludes with the Big Ten Tournament at the Donald Ross Course at the French Lick Resort in Indiana. It will mark the third consecutive season that the Huskers have competed at the Big Ten Tournament on the Ross Course. Nebraska will be hoping that more experience and a more talented and deeper lineup will put them in position to contend for their 12th NCAA Regional bid since 1994. NCAA Regional competitions will be held in Stillwater, Okla. (Central), Cle Elum, Wash. (West) and Tallahassee, Fla. (East) May 8-10, before Tulsa, Okla., plays host to the NCAA Championships, May 20-23.

Huskers Continue to Set the Pace in the Classroom Nebraska leads the nation with 64 WGCA Scholastic All-Americans since 1989, including three in 2013. Steffi Neisen capped her junior season with her third consecutive WGCA Scholastic All-America award and her second Big Ten Sportsmanship Award. Neisen, who excels on the course, in the classroom and in the community, added a prestigious Nebraska Student-Athlete HERO Leadership Award. She hopes to become the fifth Husker in history to claim four WGCA Scholastic All-America honors in 2014.

Cassidy Stelzmiller added the first WGCA Scholastic All-America award of her young career in 2013. Stelzmiller also joined Neisen as a Big Ten Distinguished Scholar and an academic All-Big Ten selection in 2013.

Morgan Smejkal and Katelyn Wright also return to the Huskers after claiming academic All-Big Ten honors in 2013.

Overall, Nebraska owns one of the richest academic traditions in all of collegiate sports with a nation-leading 307 CoSIDA Academic All-Americans across all teams and all sports. NU also leads the nation with 16 NCAA Top Ten Award winners.